My Summer Holiday Travel Essentials with Holiday Gems

Summer Holiday Essentials

I haven’t been on a proper beach holiday in years – probably since I was a teenager going on our yearly all-inclusive summer holidays with my parents and brother. With our upcoming trip to Italy, I was in need of a few more ‘beachy’ items. Now I know Cinque Terre isn’t really known for it’s amazing beaches (there’s only one beach), but it’ll be the first time I’ll be at the beach for years so I at least want to be able to take advantage of it if we get the time!

So when Holiday Gems* asked me to take part in a challenge to buy my travel essentials for only £50, it was the perfect time to try it out. They kindly sent me a £50 Love2Shop gift card and was left to go wild with it!

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For The Airport

Travel Wallet

Ok so these might not be essential to a beach holiday, but, I’ve been after a nice little travel wallet for a while now. If you ask Shane, I’m not too great at being organised at airports. I have all the stuff I need, but when I’m shopping or eating in the airport, I never have anything stored together like my boarding card and passport and money. I just shove them in my suitcase or my backpack and then when I get to the gate, I’m searching everywhere for them. So that’s where the travel wallet comes in.

It’s so handy to store my passport, boarding card, a few cards (hello Boots advantage card), and some cash – everything I’ll need for duty free shopping and boarding the plane all in one place. – £25 from John Lewis.

Pencil Case

Now I know you might be thinking, why do you need a pencil case for a holiday? Well, I like to be organised on the flight. If you’re like me and only travel with a cabin bag, then it’s hard work getting in and out of your suitcase if you need anything during the flight, so I like to put everything I’ll need in a little pencil case that I can have with me on my lap.

I’ll usually have my phone, ipod, sweets, painkillers and flight earplugs there, along with any other little bits and bobs that I might need during the flight. That way, everything is right where I need it and I don’t have to disrupt everyone rummaging through my suitcase in the middle of the isle. – £8.50 from John Lewis.

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Beach Essentials

Suncream

Suncream is so so important when you’re out in the sun, so I had to buy some for our trip as we’ll be outside a lot, hiking cliffs and taking in the stunning views. I usually buy it in the airport once we’re through security, just because it leaves me more space in my liquids allowance, but I usually just go for SPF 30. – £3 from Boots.

Beach Towel

So I don’t actually own a beach towel, well, I didn’t until I got this one. Whenever Shane and I go to the beach, we never just go to sit on the beach so I’ve never needed one. So since we’ll hopefully be going to the beach for a bit this trip, I thought it was about time I got one. I love this leaf print one so much, and it’s nice and light too – perfect for my cabin bag! – £8 from Matalan.

Sunhat

I’ve wanted a sunhat for years, because who doesn’t? I don’t cope well in the heat, and I’m known for getting sunstroke/heatstroke quite a lot, so I thought it would be a good idea to take a hat with me just to keep the sun off of my head since there’s most likely not going to be much shade when we’re hiking the cliffs around the area! – £6 from Dorothy Perkins.

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I had so much fun with this challenge! I thought it would be so easy, but once I got shopping I actually really struggled to keep it at £50 and ended up going just over at a total of £50.50 (I could have kept going too haha), which I didn’t think was too bad (especially with the splurge item of the travel wallet).

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*This post was sponsored by Holiday Gems, but as always all opinions (and shopping) was my own.

It’s a really awesome idea to use a pencil case to carry all of your little necessities! I need to get better at using a carry on instead of a suitcase, it would help me avoid overpacking and overpaying for a checked bag!